Introduction of Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering
Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering, affiliated to School of Bioscience and Bioengineering, SCUT, was approved by Science and Technology Department of Guangdong Province and supported by Guangzhou Technology Bureau in 2005. South China University of Technology gives full support to construct this key laboratory in construction funds, fields of laboratory and scientific and technological talents. The total expenditure is 150,000,000 RMB. In April, 2009, the key laboratory successfully passed the check and acceptance procedure by both Science and Technology Department of Guangdong Province and Guangzhou Technology Bureau. Academician Guoping ZHAO is the first director of academic committee, and Professor Wen TAN is the director of key laboratory.
Co-established by Guangdong Department of Science & Technology and Guangzhou Bureau of Science & Technology in 2005, the Laboratory of Fermentation & Enzyme Engineering takes as its mission the development and innovation of industrial biotech, aiming at new material energy and chemical product development and the perfection of the high-flux industrial bio-catalysis system. Its research fields cover the transformation and industrialization of industrial enzyme, new technical innovation of fermentation engineering, and ultrahigh expression & mass preparation of protein drug. The Laboratory boasts of a staff of 50 full-time members, including 15 professors and 22 associate professors.
The key lab chooses industrial bio-technology as its core, namely fermentation technology and enzyme engineering, sets exploiture of bio-energy and bio-based chemicals as its aim, combines bioinformatics, technology of molecular evolution, microbial and new fermentation technology together, takes priority to the theoretical problem of industrial biotechnology in research system, further improves the screening system of the effective industrial biocatalysis which is coupling molecular evolution of enzyme with the screening of engineering strain, constructs the research and technology platform of genomics of industrial microbiology with technology of gene chip and poteomics as its core, provides an important measure for industrial microbiology breeding and optimization of fermentation, forms new characteristics in research of biocatalysis, oil processing, technological improvement of traditional fermentation and industrial enzymes, and applies biotechnology in the clean production, energy saving and emission reduction of textile industry. Currently, the key lab has achieved great progress in constructing of engineering strain and applying into production practice of cellulase, lipase, xylanase, nattokinase and Douchi plasminogen on one hand, and formed industry advantages in enzymatic oil processing on the other.
Since the establishment of the key lab, "Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Fermentation and Enzyme Engineering Management", "Interim Measures on the Administration of Open Research Fund" and "Incentive Measures of Achievement in Scientific Research " have been constituted to form effective and consummate operating management system. At present, two innovation platforms, fermentation technology of major medical protein and clean production technology of textile industry, have been established and has greatly improved the capability of independent innovation of the key lab which boasts great influence in China, especially in south China area. In order to construct this key lab scientifically and to use funds effectively, the key lab has introduced the mechanism of "Flow and Open, Share and Exchange, Competition and Winning". As a high level innovation platform, the key lab has obtained great achievement in supporting high level scientific research, undertaking various research tasks and training talents as well.
Emphasizing on research team-building and talent training, the key lab has constructed a young research staff with rational structure and initiative spirit. There are 40 faculty and staff, including 15 professors, 22 associate professors, 28 of which have doctor degree accounting for 70% of the total number of staff. There are 26 young researchers accounting for 65% of all. During 2006 to 2008, 312 graduate students were enrolled, including 52 doctoral students. And there are 276 graduate students have graduated from this key lab, including 26 doctoral students.
The key lab, covering an area of 15,000 square meters, located in the School building in south campus of SCUT. The total value of all equipments is more than 25,000,000RMB. And equipments worth over 50,000RMB aggregate to 13,874,000RMB. Thus, the key lab offers sound experiment foundation and equipment conditions to the research project.
Since the key lab was established 3 years ago, it has undertaken 20 national projects (12 National Natural Science Foundations, 8 “973”and “863” projects, 36 provincial and municipal scientific research projects, and 2 industrial projects. The total project funding reaches 55,430,000RMB. Furthermore, 5 national invention patents have been authorized, 12 books have been published, and 102 high level papers have been presented including 67 papers embodied by SCI journals, such as PLoS Med, PLoS ONE, Bioinformatics. The School implements scientific and normative management to train graduate and undergraduate students, and carries out innovative training model on them. In recent years, the School makes remarkable progress on talent training, quality and quantity of academic papers that graduate students have published on SCI journals. What’s more, 2 undergraduate students contribute greatly to the research projects in ShenZhen Genomics Institute with their names on the cover paper of Nature "The diploid genome sequence of an Asian individual".
The key lab greatly improved its development capability and also speeds up the industrial process of major projects by cooperating with companies, such as Zhujiang beer Co.,Ltd, Guangdong Zhaoqing Star Lake Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Jiangmen Ganhua factory, Zhuhai Federated Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Global Green Tech Group, Ltd and so on,
